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Monday, December 17, 2012

Now that the Cross Country season is officially over, it's time to select the All-Norcal XC teams (boys and girls). Feel free to comment on who you think deserves to be on the teams as well as make note on the various leaders such as NorCal runners of the year (boy and girl), section best, freshman of the year etc.

You can find the State Meet results just for NorCal runners at this link.

We will vote for 1st, 2nd, 3rd teams (7 each) and Honorable mention (20) for guys & gals. Also, we will vote for Runner of year as well as Frosh, Sophomore, Junior & Senior of the year AND vote for Section Best Runner of year. Also vote for 10 All-Frosh. Deadline for us is to turn in our selections by Dec 24 (one week from today).

25 comments:

Chuck's Army
said...

Is anyone else feeling a Campolindo sweep? Runner of the Year, Coach of the Year, Team of the Year, Frosh of the Year. Come at me bro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lauren Jacob was the best frosh girl in CCS but not the best frosh in NorCal and definitely not the state. I would say that Maggie Bell of Granite Bay (SJS) who won the Division II race and beat Jacob by over a minute in the same race would have to be ranked ahead of her...right? The 2nd best frosh in NorCal is Fiona O'Keeffe of Davis who finished 6th in the Division I race with a 17:49. Jacob's time at state was 18:31.

If you convert Jacob's time to the state meet, her time would be around 17:49. This is still 20 seconds slower than Maggie Bell. Jacob had a nice season but Bell was superior head to head when it counted the most at the state meet.

Lets face it folks, how runners and teams did throughout the season is not as important as how they did in the championship meets at the end of the season. Those who produce when it counts deserve the accolades. Injuries, bad weather, inexperience were risks endured by all runners this season. If your runner or team does not get the recognition you feel they deserve hopefully this will make for strengthening the runner and the program to re-evaluate, make changes, and improve over the next season.

Thanks to all of the coaches and runners that put so much of themselves into making the XC season one worth watching, with many outstanding performances. Make sure to congratulate every athlete that made it through the season on a job well done. After all, the kids could have more destructive hobbies, right?

If the "regular season" doesn't count than why do they have league meets that do? Dual meets and league meets do "mean something" as they count toward the title. So yeah.

I have a hard time thinking that if German Fernandez got sick in HS and didn't make the California State Meet but annihilated the competition in every race setting course records on every course he ran that he wouldn't have won the award. So to say it means nothing is short sighted.

Yes the regular season doesn't mean as much as the post season but it means something. Remember last year when Sarah Robinson was the best Nor Cal Runner in the post season but you all said that didn't count because it was only the last few races of the year?

Maybe "Chuck's Army" is trolling his own team hiding behind the disguise of looking like an imposter but really just trying to get the word out about his team in a subliminal manor. And as for Carlmont and Bellarmine, that rivalry played out on the comment section is my highlight of the year, though some more heated exchanges would have made it much more entertaining.

not hating on Lawson at all but Yohaness should be the runner of the year. He sets numerous course records, got to #6 all time on the famous crystal springs course, and was the most consistent all year. It was only seconds that seperated the top runners at the State meet. #2 Lawson, 3#Goltra, # Richard Ho.

Carlmont beat Bellarmine at CCS, set the Toro Park Team Time record and ran a faster team time at State with their 2nd man QUITTING the team the week of State. Bellarmine fans hate to admit that they beat Carlmont at State in 2009 because Randazzo kicked our #1 man Ben Heck off the team for State and in 2011 Randazzo kicked Beau Armstrong the #3 man off the team. Don't know which is worse having your old coach sabotage you on purpose or your new coach let a kid quit with no reprecussions before State. The only legit year Bellarmine beat Carlmont at State was 2010! Hows that for entertainment?

You have a group of people vote on the teams so you have a mixture of opinions as opposed to one person choosing the teams. I think you have to take everything on a case by case basis. You compare the runners based on the regular season and post season. How did they do head to head? What were their accomplishments? Sometimes it's clear cut and sometimes it's not.

For this year, I believe Julia Maxwell is the clear cut runner of the year for the girls. The boys is not so obvious and is between Estifanos, Lawson and Goltra. Estifanos had the most impressive regular season. Goltra (15:17.1) had the fastest time at state but Estifanos (15:20.2) was not far behind with Lawson (15:33.8) a bit back. Lawson made it to Nationals and finished 9th. He beat Goltra head to head but Estifanos didn't run due to perhaps his foot injury.

I think for team of the year, for the men's side, I believe that De La Salle should get that award because as a team they did well in state without arguably their best runner. As for the girls side I think that Granada deserves that award because of their dominance in both the EBAL and NCS for the past couple of years. Now I just want everyone to know that I looked over other teams and divisions as well and I am not saying that only division 1 EBAL teams should get the award, these are just the teams, in my opinion that should get them. For girl runner of the year I think there really isn't much of a debate that Julia Maxwell has that award won, but as far as the boys side goes I really am a fan of Aidan Goltra to win that honor because of his amazing performance at State and NCS. I think the only reason as to why John Lawson should win is because of his performance at the Foot Locker Nationals.

First off, yes, Carlmont had an incredible race at CCS - that result was amazing as they shattered the previous Toro Park course record by Mtn. View.

I have some significant hesitations about all these comments on past years. Not being part of the program limits the inside knowledge; however, I think some red flags pop up. First, it is hard to imagine that any coach would just stand up and kick someone off the team, let alone the #1 man, right before the state meet. You mean to say nothing happened? He just suddenly was kicked off because of a coach's personal vendetta? I think there must be more to it than that. And same thing with 2011, a coach wouldn't just go around kicking kids off the team right before state for no reason.

And to the comment about this year. Another question arises as to why the #2 runner just suddenly quits. He just suddenly had enough? Got tired right at that point so he wouldn't run for his team? And for that you can't just blame the coach for not establishing any repercussions, what would that have accomplished? She couldn't have forced him to run. The logic there seems pretty flawed.

Keep in mind with the Carlmont situation that as coaches we are trying to develop high school students as people first, students second, and athletes third. So maybe the athlete the coach did not let run for some unknown reason, but completely legit. And for their #2, maybe he had an injury or was sick. Stop blaming solely the coach or solely the runner. There are so many other factors to consider.

But they should not be the boys team of the year. It should be SJND. They did the best at state in accordance with their competition. Sometimes, its not just based on raw times or scores in the combined scores. Sometimes its about racing - after all, that's what cross country is. SJDN did work this season after losing Ratto and Arias's inconsistencies.

The girls team is obviously St. Francis Sacramento. To the person who said Granada, I kind of laughed. I'm sorry and Granada is very good and scares me a lot when we face them at NCS, but St. Francis is the first NorCal team to go to NXN. They did the best at state, won Stanford, dominated SJS and even down in some NCS races.

I voted Lawson, especially for his FLW and FLN races. Estifanos, Goltra, and Lawson were somewhat close after state, but the Footlocker races push Lawson ahead. Like I said before, Julia Maxwell is an easy pick for girls.

Just saying, when we watched the NCS Div V girls run in the mud, I advised my son to take a picture of Julia Maxwell as she zoomed by, so that he could tell his kids "oh yeah, I watched her race when she was just a High School phenom" and have the snapshot to show them. I think she has my vote, for the girls.

Thank you Andrew, for your words about SJND; their win was really all about heart.

Lawson and Maxwell all the way, lawson 14:09 at Lowell invite, home course record by more than 30 seconds...14:39 for 3 miles, his goal was impact at nationals, he did it and signed to UCLA, Julia was amazing, others had big races, but not as big impact

I agree that Lawson's performance at Lowell Invite was amazing. He beat Yohanness by 30 seconds that day. And a top 10 finish at FootLocker Finals certainly seals the deal. I would go with Lawson for Runner of the Year.